


In The Moon of Winter Time When All The Birds Had Fled

by Merixcil



Series: Advent Fics 2018 [3]
Category: Twin Peaks
Genre: Established Relationship, Gen, Horror, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:35:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25204840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merixcil/pseuds/Merixcil
Summary: Blue Rose cases don't stop for Christmas
Relationships: Dale Cooper & Albert Rosenfield, Dale Cooper/Albert Rosenfield
Series: Advent Fics 2018 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824643
Kudos: 5





	In The Moon of Winter Time When All The Birds Had Fled

You would have thought, when your employer is keen enough to stick you on a plane to deepest Wyoming without leaving you time to pack, they might foot the bill for a decent pair of boots. The coat, Albert had with him at the office, even DC gets cold, but his shoes aren’t ready for the snow. 

Neither are his trousers, which are soaked through an unlikely to be dry before morning. Albert’s shoulders are creeping ever closer to his ears, a primitive animal reflex, seeking to preserve the heat that leaks from every human orifice like water through a panhandle. 

The car engine cuts out, and Albert turns to see Cooper pocketing the keys and striding out into the middle of the ice streaked road. Right on cue, the dense cloud cover breaks just enough to let a string of moonlight through, catching his face and sparking in his eyes. 

Cooper smiles, holds his arms wide. “Albert, I’ve got a good feeling about tonight.”

“You say that every Christmas Eve.” Albert shoots back.

“But this year we’ve been given such a wonderful present.”

Albert has never thought of Blue Rose cases as anything more than a curse. But he takes them because he’s good at them, and because if he doesn’t, people will die. Call him sentimental, but he doesn’t like to think that anyone’s dropping down dead when he could have saved them. 

Animals count. It’s not like this case has picked up a human body count yet, but that doesn’t mean Albert can’t care. 

The moon cuts out and plunges them into darkness, on some back road out of town that bisects a pine forest planted for harvesting. The crop trees stand in rigidly straight lines, like plastic figurines without a shred of wind to bring them to life. 

The two of them stand, stock still, Albert wishing they had brought a torch. If Cooper starts talking about taking off into the woods he’s going to throttle him. Not tonight, not in this cold, not when they arrived too late to talk to the local sheriff. Imagine that, a town so small that the police department have nights off. 

Cooper’s silhouette is black and solid against a background that is just as dark but variegated. Albert holds his breath, trying to hold his heat inside, and strains his ears. There should be owls shrieking, crows bickering in the night. Hell, even in deepest winter, there are always small birds too dense to realise that the onset of dark is not merely the half hour prelude to the dawn. The chorus lasts all night, if you know to listen for it. 

There’s nothing. Shit. The snow isn’t likely to clear until well into the new year and Albert is about to ruin the least awful pair of office shoes he’s ever owned. 

“Albert?” Cooper calls out, softly. His outline growing larger as he approaches. “Albert, are you there?”

“Of course I’m here.” Albert huffs back. “I know you can see me. It’s not that dark.”

“I know I can see something, but I couldn’t be sure it was you.” Cooper’s voice is as evenly curious as ever. He thinks there are evil things at work in this world and spiritual forces beyond the human understanding and he’s not even scared. 

The crack of a twig snapping sets Albert’s nerves on edge and for ten blessed seconds he can’t think about how cold he is and how wet his feet are. His eyes scan the treeline, wishing for the eyes of a hawk that he might be more certain of what he sees. 

“No birds.” Cooper hums, stepping up next to him. “What do you suppose could scared them away?”

“I don’t know. A large predator. Unfamiliar to this area.” Albert’s stomach sinks. Cooper put the keys into his right pocket. If this all goes horribly wrong they can still run. 

“Alien species can upset a local ecosystem but they rarely scare a whole phylum away over night.”

“Well, what do you suggest?”

“I don’t know yet, Albert. I only just got here.”

Albert glares at him as best as he can in the dark, not that Cooper ever much cared how anyone looked at him. “Me too. Let’s head back to town, get some sleep and look over the evidence in the morning.”

The most he blinks, and the longer the moon stays hidden behind the clouds, coy as she likes on this of all nights, the more Albert can see. Cooper’s hair is dark enough to blend into the night and his eyes are as bottomless as ever. But his cheeks are pale enough to pick out the edges, along with the pale yellow scarf Albert knitted him for his birthday. 

“I want to go into the woods.” 

Without leaving time for the court to protest this horrible decision, Cooper steps up onto the bank of displaced snow at the side of the road and makes to cross the ditch towards the trees. It’s all Albert can do to grab him by his ungloved hand, feeling the chill of their skin pressed carefully between their palms. 

Cooper looks back at him, smiling just enough to show his teeth. “Come on, Albert. We’re already here.”

“And I’m cold as shit.”

“Don’t you want to see? Don’t you want to know?”

A slight tug, hardly insistent, more invitational. Come with me, see the world. See the world between the worlds. Albert would say Cooper watched too much TV, but they don’t have a set back at their apartment. 

The night is perfectly silent around them, not so much as a lone wolf kind enough to break it. And really, where are the birds? 

Albert follows Cooper’s shining eyes, up and over the ridge towards whatever doom might befall them this evening. The moon struggles to break free of it’s murky prison, scattering light along their path ahead and making all the shadows of the forest stand in ever starker contrast. 

Making Cooper light up like the tree in the lobby of their hotel. Albert twists their hands together all the tighter and concedes that his shoes were wet already. 

**Author's Note:**

> This work was originally posted as part of a multi chaptered 'advent fics' fic that I'm trying to split up. If you think you've read it before, you probably have
> 
> Comments on the previous posting of this fic (just ask if you want me to remove yours) include:
> 
> >laughingpineapple: Oooooh this is magnificent! That good old-school Dale/Albert fix, with a stellar atmosphere, your descriptions are fantastic and perfectly play off the characters' feelings creating a mood so thick you could cut it with a knife. What a gem. Albert's baseline grump and his keen attention for Coop - and the knitted scarf, how cute! - are so endearing. And into the woods they go...  
> >>Merixcil: Thank you! I just love the idea of these two in a long term, slightly off kilter relationship. Into the woods indeed


End file.
